Preview: Care / Work @ Vane

Image: Nayeema Ahmed, Anju, Cambian, from the ‘Givers’ series, 2026, oil on tissue roll on canvas

Vane opens Care / Work on 9th July, a new exhibition from Sunderland‑born British‑Bangladeshi artist Nayeema Ahmed that explores femininity, labour and cultural identity through inventive, non‑traditional materials.

Ahmed, a recent Northumbria Fine Art graduate, has quickly developed a distinctive practice shaped by growing up in a culture where art was discouraged — a tension that now fuels her playful, resourceful approach. Her work often turns everyday objects into sites of care, memory and resistance, interrogating how gender, ethnicity and heritage shape the labour that underpins domestic and community life.

Central to the exhibition is Givers, a portrait series honouring women working in daily care roles. Painted on kitchen roll, a material tied to domestic labour, the works elevate those often overlooked in both art history and society, many of whom are immigrants. Mother shifts the focus inward, using clay, tin foil, sari fabric, wood and plastic as canvases to map Ahmed’s own childhood and the intersections between Britain, Bangladesh and maternal care.

The exhibition also features Changing, a screenprinted fabric installation that moves through the six seasons of Bangladesh (Grishsho, Borsha, Shorot, Hemonto, Sheet and Boshonto) using motifs drawn from family memories to evoke the communal forms of care embedded in South Asian culture.

Presented by GemArts and Vane, Gateshead as part of the 10th‑anniversary Masala Festival, Care / Work runs 9th July–1st August, Wednesday–Saturday, with a preview on Wednesday 8th July, 5–8pm.